Basic CAD issues

[trainboy]

Took the class last April and Jake was great. A DXF file I'm working on...has red outlines. When I show fill I get these black jagged lines next to the red. When I show tool paths I get the black jagged lines only. My Sequence by list only shows one Polyarc symbol, there are about 24 cutouts. Machine Output goes to the next screen. Pressed numeric control manager and I get a g code. First line of g code is.....OSECTION 2 ENTITIES. I import to the cut program and I only get the first 3 lines of g code. Could my initial file have issues? Can't seem to get the basics in the correct order. thanks in advance

 

[Dnmeistr-LECS]

The black lines next to the red is your tool path, not sure why they are jagged, all the tool path does is it applies an offset from your original image, so you may need to do some cleanup on your original image. Your Sequence by List is only showing one polyarc due to you selected all and Made a Path which ties all objects into one part. If these are individual parts then you would Make Path on each individual part instead of selecting all and Making Path. For instance 4 base plates with holes inside, you want to be able to select these 4 plates individually as opposed to selecting all and making path, doing so would combine all 4 plates into one shape, which makes it so you can not change up the sequencing. The proper operation would be to select all of the objects on one plate and make path then do the same for the next 3 plates. Then select all and create your tool path, now when you go to change up the sequence you will have 4 separate tool paths you can pick from.

When it comes time to Machine > Output make sure that Device in the upper left of screen shows Accumove Imperial and Tool shows Multitool, this will generate the proper gcode when you go to Cut Now. Hope this helps, let me know if you run into any other issues, thanks.

 

[trainboy]

thank you for the reply and good information. If the black dotted lines are my tool path, then why do I get a blank screen when I ask...... Show Tool Paths only?

 

[trainboy]

I know why I have some black dotted lines next to the red. The nodes don't connect correctly, thus not showing fill. When I connect path at .10, nothing happens, giving me the red and partial black dotted lines, like it is trying to show fill..... When I change that number to .40 or higher, it shows fill but it connects to the lead in side of the node, showing a distorted fill.

 

[Dnmeistr-LECS]

Best to start with the original make sure it shows up correctly before we try to create a tool path. First thing I normally do is import the dxf, then go to Edit > Select by > Open Objects, if anything gets selected you know it is an open object and will need to be fixed before creating a tool path, you may need to Break the Path first before doing this.

If you have open objects, to connect the dots (pun intended), select all go to Arrange > Covert to Polyarc then back to Arrange and Connect Path enter a tolerance of .1. Break the Path and again select by open objects to see if the sequence worked. If so you can go to Arrange > Make Path and then create your tool path.